The episode starts with an expose over previous famous and infamous moments from this season. Once we are done with that we get a look at the finale teams until it is finally time for them to leave the pit stop at the temple of heaven in the following order:

1.

Jill & Thomas

03:57

2.

Brook & Claire

04:23

(+0:26)

3.

Nat & Kat

04:27

(+0:30)

Route info: "Fly to your final destination city, Los Angeles". When teams land they must travel to the port of Long Beach and find pier J (23mi 0:30) where they will receive their next clue. Teams get $400 for this leg of the race.

All teams hop into cabs for the airport. We see Nat & Kat borrow a cellphone from the driver on the way. They seem to do this a lot, which is smart racing.

Choice quotes: "We're going to keep that streak of no all-female team winning", Thomas "I can break out my Spanish skill in LA too", Thomas reveals his secret weapon "We need to beat Thomas. He is just so hungry. We need to be more hungry than Thomas, and I'm starving", Brook "You guys are cute in your matching outfits", Jill comments on the cheetah pants worn by Brook & Claire

At the airport all teams camp out in front of the Korean air counter in the order they arrived, there is no cutting in line this season. Eventually they all end up on the same flight: KE017 ICN-LAX 15:24-10:24

Note that this flight left in the afternoon on the 15th and landed in the morning on the same day. That is it landed before it started (after a flight time of 11h), the date-line sure is confusing.

When landing in LA the order teams get out of the plane seems to be: 1. Nat & Kat 2. Brook & Claire 3. Jill & Thomas

Teams arrive at the next clue in the following order: 1. Nat & Kat 2. Jill & Thomas, arrive a couple of minutes after #1 3. Brook & Claire, just after #2

Choice quotes: "I'm glad you are a fast driver", Nat to their taxi driver in LA "There are a lot of these cranes, and there are several platforms high up in the air", Nat has a bad feeling about the next clue "I think it's about to happen, and I'm gonna have to deal with it", Brooke realizes a bungee jump is in her future

Route info: "Welcome to the drop zone

Go to the top of Crane 22 and get your next clue from the Foreman. Then, there's only one way down, a bungee swing to the water below". Teams must ride a tiny elevator to the top of a crane, receive a clue. Then they are strapped into a two-person bungee swing and must plummet 150ft towards the water. Once they are back on the pier they may open their next clue.

At this challenge we see that all the teams have somebody who is afraid of height (Nat, Jill & Brooke). But Nat is in a league of her own. She is literally in tears, but she does not hesitate and they jump without delay. The task is not made any less scary by the fact that there seems to be an awful lot of rigging involved.

This challenge may seem pointless because nobody seemed to gain or loose any time relative to the other teams. But it really did test the will power of each team. If it had been in an earlier leg I am pretty sure some teams would have balked. But this is the final and all teams are pretty determined, so they all went through without delay.

Choice quotes: "Let's go fast, I don't want to have time to think about it", Nat is very afraid of heights "Mind over matter,... I don't really believe in any of that right now", Nat is really scared "Oh yeah, Nat has problems with heights", Thomas hopes Nat will freak out "I don't understand this, do you? Does it just drop?", Claire is baffled by the bungee contraption "This is the scariest thing I have ever done, I'm never going to do it again", Nat after the drop. "I didn't even pee my pants", Nat gives us too much detail "I've never loved asphalt so much", Nat is back on land after the ordeal "Petrified", Brooke on how she feels hanging in the harness "Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii", Brook shows an impressive lung capacity during the bungee "That's when I just about lost by bananas", Brooke explains the jump after wards

Route info: "Beat the freeway traffic. Ride a helicopter to a surprise destination." Teams must now get to the Catalina air & sea heliport (8.5mi 0:17) and ride a helicopter to their next destination (0:18). Which turns out to be the Rose bowl. During the helicopter ride we get to hear the mandatory "Ride of the Valkyries". But sadly there is no napalm involved in the upcoming road block.

The first helicopter (N4TV) carries: 1. Nat & Kat

The second (N234AH) lands as team #1 are performing the road block and carries 2. Jill & Thomas

The third (N6516K) lands before the doctors are done and carries 3. Brook & Claire

All teams manage to identify the Rose Bowl while landing.

Choice quotes: "This is totally the way to travel in LA", Nat in the helicopter

Road block: "Who's bright enough to float?", Teams must painstakingly decorate three different sections of a float, which is used in the annual rose parade.

Thomas & Jill has already decided who's going to do the last road block so Thomas takes it without even looking at Nat & Kat for what the task may be. It would probably have been better to let Jill do it. BTW the road blocks rules say that any team member may do a maximum of half plus one roadblocks, which in this season translated to a maximum of 7 road blocks, so all teams are within this limit.

Phil says that this task is surprisingly difficult, but the only problem any team has is that Nat forgot to fill the rose cups with water so she had to redo that part. But they still manage to finish first.

Teams complete the road block in the following order (* denotes team member performing the road block, and the numbers how many roadblocks each team member have performed):

1.

Nat* & Kat

(6-5)

2.

Jill & Thomas*

(5-7)

3.

Brook* & Claire

(7-5)

Choice quotes: "I'm definitely a left brain kind of girl", Nat does not feel a perfect match for this task "Thomas and I have been working the road blocks so that he could do the last one", Jill "This is the first time I've ever decorated ... I'm not very crafty", Thomas "I should've probably done this", Jill "That had Brook all over it", Claire "I've been on a couple of floats in my life, so I feel right at home in the float brigade", Brook Route info: "Fill in the blanks:

1. I am Sancho Panza's master.2. I am the place to hear The Symphony in the Glen3, Monroe's Year of the Itch.

teams must now figure out the answers to these questions and then goto that place. The answers are: 1. Don Quixote 2. Griffith park 3. 7And this leads them to stage 7 of Quixote studios at Griffith Park(9mi 0:16).

This is a though nut to crack, and it is probably here the race is decided. The teams all end up solving the riddle in different ways.

Nat & Kat ask around among all the available cabs for any one with an iPhone. They did not find any, but it was a very smart thing to do. When that fails they find a driver who they can communicate with and jump in the car. They then use his phone to call somebody. We later learn that they had studied hard for LA, and among other things looked up numbers for tourist information etc.

Jill & Thomas also fail to find any driver with a smart phone so they select one driver and start driving. They borrow his phone and calls somebody. But just as they are starting to get help that phone dies. This is when they realize the can't communicate very well with their driver, who is Polish. They have many problems but in the end they find somebody on the street with an iPhone who helps them (not all of this is shown). All of this takes a lot of time.

Brook & Claire, have their taxi drive to a nearby hotel (Courtyard Marriott Pasadena) where they use the internet to look up the answers. The clock is now 14.05.

Choice quotes: "Hi, sorry I'm in a race", Nat calls information "Sir, do you know what a Google search is?", Thomas tries to communicate with their taxi driver "I got GPS, okay?", but the driver does not understand "Hello, we need to use your internet, desperately", Thomas tries an electronics repair shop "We're in a big hurry, so if you could go as fast as you can we would really appreciate it", Brooke to their taxi driver "We need to get out of here, this is like the worst area", Jill does not like the neighborhood they have stopped in "Literally, we could be in first or last", Brooke is not sure where they stand "You get back to the states, and you've more of a language barrier than you have in other countries", Thomas

Teams arrive at the studio in the following order: 1. Nat & Kat 2. Brook & Claire, arrive after #1 have left 3. Jill & Thomas, arrive after #2 have left

Route info: "That's entertainment", in this task teams must correctly identify the greeters to the 11 previous legs of this race. The greeters, who all are wearing hats, can be found on a screen showing a total of 48 (arranged 8x6) different film clips. Each clip shows the head of the greeter. The clips switch places about once ever second. All the clips seem to be of different greeters, but only 11 of them are from this season. Once teams have identified, and placed them in the correct order, they will receive their next clue from legendary game show host Bob Eubanks.

Teams are allowed to use their notes during the task.

We are only shown the first two teams at this challenge, but neither of those have any problems with it. Jill & Thomas also completed this, but that was not shown.

Choice quotes: "The thing is just flashing, and you're so overwhelmed", Nat "Can we hug you? We're kind of sweaty", Kat to Bob Eubanks "You're, like, our idol", Brook (while jumping up and down in excitement) to Bob Eubanks

Route info: "Make your way to the finish line, Greystone mansion in Beverly Hills", teams must now travel by Taxi to the finish line at Greystone mansion (16mi 0:28).

Choice quotes: "Oh my gosh 'Make your way to the finish line', it's so good to see that one a clue", Nat "It's kind of traffickly", Kat while stuck in traffic in the taxi "This traffic is killing me", Nat is tense "Don't be afraid to honk, we like honking", Claire to their taxi driver "Maybe this is a shortcut", Claire "Oh please, oh please, oh please", Nat in the taxi "Are we first? are we first? are we first?", Nat & Kat jumping up and down when reaching Phil

Choice quotes: "Nat and Kat, you have made Amazing Race history, for... all female team to win", Phil has trouble making himself heard over the shoults of joy by the doctors "This experience has totally bonded us", Kat on her relationship with Nat "We literally laughed our way around the world", Claire "This has been, oh I don't even know why I'm crying", Jill is emotional after the race "Can we do it again?", Mallory "It's been probably one of the best experiences of our entire lives", Nat

I liked the reports. I wish I was on this board way back when this season started to get the full effect of them. But back in episode 3 in the school in Ghana, Gary and Mallory found Ghana on their first attempt. When they went to the class, there was a student already putting a country on the map and she called out Egypt when Gary and Mallory sat down so that made two countries on the map before they got to Ghana. I think Thomas found it on his first try as well. Back in episode 5, Kat said "Tastes like a million dollars." not Nat. Also a little tidbit, I read somewhere that Brook and Claire also went for that fast forward but when they got there, Nat and Kat had plowed through it and were almost finished. This is why they were at the bridge after Gary and Mallory and Kevin and Michael.

Logged

You don't always win the race by making the best forward moves but you make it by avoiding the huge moves that set you back. -Nat